- Got a fan encounter you wanna share...any pics of you and the Goo's?? Send it to me and I will add your story to the fan encounters!

Review/encounter from Breanne:
Well, to start, yes, I saw the Goos in concert
and met them. They were just incredible. I don't
know how else to describe it. Unforgettable.

Our seats were 5th row on the floor from the
stage. The seats were bomb! My best friend
Stefanie was the one who got the four tickets for
me, her, Michael and Kirsten.

I can't remember exactly the order of the songs
they performed. But I'm pretty sure it went like
this:
Big Machine
Long Way Down
Slide
Naked
You Never Know
Truth Is A Whisper
Dizzy
Here Is Gone
January Friend
Black Balloon
Think About Me
Cuz You’re Gone
Name
Tucked Away
Broadway
Sympathy
Iris
What A Scene

And for the encore they played 'Burning Up' and
'American Girl'.

As for the part when I met them. You're going to
need a brief overview-flashback type thing. See,
back during the summer, I went to California. On
the flight back home, I sat next to this guy, who
for a living is a truck driver. Now, ya know how
bands and artists have their stage props and
whatnot? This guy, Mike, is a truck driver for
bands and artists who haul their stage stuff to
concerts. I asked him who he's driven for, and he
said, "You name them, I've driven for them." I
started naming off bands. Nirvana, Goo Goo Dolls,
Backstreet Boys, Dave Mathews Band. He said yes
to them all. So I asked him if he ever got to
meet the bands. Again he told me yes, he normally
gets to meet them. So I asked him what the Goos
were like and he said they were really cool.

So we get to the arena. It's already jam packed.
Over to the left there was a truck backing up
towards a door going inside. I thought, 'Hey
cool! I wonder if that Mike guy is driving the
truck.' I reminded my friends about him, and
start walking over there shouting the guy's name.
Out of the four guys starting to haul things out
of the truck, one of them turned around, so I
assumed that was him. I started walking closer
and he was all, "Who are you?" I said,"Summer.
Plane to Seattle. We sat next to each other and
played cards half the time." I was shocked that
he remembered me. He had to finish unloading the
truck, so me and my buds went off and got in line
to get in. Just as people were able to get in,
that Mike guy was walking around looking at the
people in line. When he came my way I asked him
what he was doing. He said, "Looking for you.
Come here." He takes me out of the line and we
started walking around the side of the building.
My friends followed. I said, "Dude, where we
going?" He says, "Well, you wanna meet the band?"
And he took us backstage and we met them!

It was amazing. They were so incredibly nice. We
got a picture taken with them and we got their
autographs on our ticket stubs. Mike even gave me
his cell phone number.

Thanks to Breanne for sending me this exciting encounter and review! You can also check out her personal site here!

Goo Review from Suzy (10/31/02):
We were at the front of the pit, in front of the stage light on Robby's side, and a little to his left. There were some tall people to our left (direction from us would be toward the center of the stage, so there is a lot I did not see, as my view was blocked. That is the perspective this particular report is written from.
Lisa Loeb in an outfit to represent Hello, Kitty--pink dress, whiskers penciled on her face, fuzzy knit cap with kitty ears. Her set was about 45 minutes.
After the stage appeared to be pretty much all set-up for the GOOs, as the stage lights got more and more dim, a raggedy red curtain was put up in the area between the stage and the pit.

Mke and Jason (keyboardist) had already taken their places on the stage.
Suddenly the music on the speakers was very LOUD, Hall & Oates "Maneater".
What I could not see at first is that Johnny and Robby had appeared in front of that red curtain, in sostume as Darryl Hall and John Oates. Robby had a sort of fro wig on and a huge moustache, John had on a loud shirt--which was worn open in the front. They were lipsynching to the music on the speakers--It was hilarious. IAfter they did that bit,] the raced through the at buffer area to get backstage.

For the show, Johnny wore a tank, and slacks, and a white and blue stocking type cap. I think of it as a pirate style cap. Robby wore a shirt with Dopey on it (you know, one of the 7 dwarfs), and snug black leather pants. Awesome! And socks, of course.

Set List:
1) Naked
2) Long Way Down
3) Slide

Someone threw a pair of shorts on the stage that were imprinted on the front "Johnny's Big Machine" and on the back it said "Oh, Yea", or else "Oh, Yes""
He said something about wondering if he could use those in regards to girls, I didn't hear it that well. And used it as a perfect set-up to play the song.

Robby talked about being from upstate New York, and how nice it was to get to see the leaves change color. A nice set-up for:

12) Lucky Star
13) Tucked Away
14) Name
15) All Eyes On Me

Intro the band: the guitarist--Malcolm (?) I think that is what he said, but I do not know what it means--Greg was wearing a blonde wig, just above the shoulder length.
Next, the keyboardist-Eminem (Robby had to teach him how to give somebody the finger),
Next the drummer: Johnny said it was some F***ing guy he never heard of from a movie he never heard of. There was some guessing, the third guess was when Robby went up to his mic with a devilish glint in his eye, and asked "Is it . . . George?" Nope, it was from the movie Logans Run (I think) the character was "Francis 7". Next, John Oates -bass
and Darryl Hall-guitar

16) Broadway *Jason played sax on this one
17) Sympathy
18) Iris
19) What A Scene
Encore
20) Johnny played a "guitar soud-alike" hot riff, I think he said it was Prince (?)
I heard that then Mike came down and bowed down to him as "Guitar God" , and Johnny said--"Well, I'll never do THAT again!"

21) January Friend (Robby dedicated this to friends who surf in New Jersey)
22) American Girl

Oh, one other thing--I did not see Jason (security) there, the word going around when we were on the line, is that he wasn't there, there was a different guy for this show. Later on I heard that Jason is gonna be MB20s tour manager, and so he is too busy to do both, but will be back with GOO occasionally, whenever he is able to.
Much thanks goes out to Suzy for sending this review to me and sharing it with the rest of Goo fans, you can check out her nifty site here or her personal pics from the concert here!

Goo Encounter from Mo:
Well, it all started when "The New Rock Show," a show on the radio station 102.1 The Edge (In Toronto) played "Here Is Gone." Then, they mentioned that the goos wanted to come by the edge but no date was confirmed. A few days later, I was bouncing off my walls (literally), I looked like Homer Simpson jumping up for joy when he sees food, lol! Anyway, the radio station announced that the goos were coming for an interview. I called up my friend Becca who had just come from Florida...I could barely breath to tell her the news...well, I didn't have to say anything she knew right away, all she said was "JOHNNY?!!!!"

I hadn't eaten the whole day cuz I was so nervous...I almost puked before walking into the radio station. We came too early and were asked to come back. When we came back, I was horrified...so many people were there...I was sure that I would be stuck in the back. Luckly for me I met an overly excited goos fan who moved her way to the front taking me with her...(thanks to the two nice girls who let us in front of them, they told us that we were much bigger fans). 20 minutes later the goos walk in...only to walk right back out...they were 10 minutes too early, the station was waiting for Andrew W.K. (his interview was supposed to be 10 minutes) but before the goos went out to get their all-Canadian Coffee (Tim Horton's) I screamed Johnny's name...he came right up to me and squeezed my hand and said "hey, how's it going, how are you...well, that's kinda what he said, I was too shocked to answer back. Then because they had to leave for a while he said he felt like such an asshole because he said hi to me only and no one else. When they came back they did the interview and played live for us. They played acousticly "Slide" and "Here Is Gone." And when it came time for pictures I called Johnny first but, he needed to take a cigi break. I was the first to take a picture with him...he signed my dizzy up the girl CD and sleeve. I was upset though cuz I didn't get pics with Mike or Robby...or even get stuff signed by them (I had brought my entire goos collection of stuff), people were calling them left and right.Robby promised to take a pic with me but he got pulled away, and so did Mike. But, it was the best experience i ever had..they were so gracious and just so polite. I don't think Robby wanted to leave..he kept on signing until he got to the door, but by that time he was at the opposite side of where i was.

Thanks Mo for sending me this great experience and sharing it with the rest of us Goo fans!

Goo Encounter/Concert Review from Raven:
OK, so it all started when I won tickets from Dave at the Gutterflower Street Team (Thank you soooo much, Dave!). My mom and I drove 4 hours to get to Memphis, TN. Of course, we listened to the Goo Goo Dolls the WHOLE way. Anywho, we got there at around 3:30. As we were driving to find a hotel, we drove by the Goos’ buses. I started to scream and yell “Mom, go back, go back, NOW!!!.” I said that cuz right beside the bus wuz Robby takin’ a pic for a fan! All I saw was the back of his head, but I could tell it was him! LOL When we got back to that spot, Robby was gone L Go we got our hotel, and headed down to stand by the buses to wait for a while.

We waited around for about 15 minutes and then we saw Greg Suran, the guitarist. All the people (including my mom and I) were too shy to say anything to him, but he did smile and wave! It wuz kinda funny cuz he wuz wearing pink (yes pink) flip flops. Then about 30 minutes later, we saw the keyboard guy (sorry, what’s his name??) and he had no shirt on cuz he had been running. Last we saw Mike go into the bus. Still too shy to say anything. LOL I met 2 girls while I was waiting – Jessica, and one I did not get her name (if you are that girl, sorry) We 4 talked for a bit and then around 7 (the show started @ 7:30) we went inside.

I bought a shirt (black and grey baseball T with a swirling thing that said Goo Goo Dolls in the middle) and a 4-pack of stickers. I bought my friend Nikki a shirt, pins and stickers, too. Then we headed inside. My mom and I had 11th row, the first 2 on the isle, so I had a really good view of it all. I could see everything. Our tickets and a sign said that you could not take pictures inside the theater, but I took my camera in anyway, and took 20 pics!! The security guards never saw that I had a camera with a flash on the end of the row! I would have taken 24 pics, but I wanted to save some in case I met the Goos after the show J The concert wuz great except the Goos did not seem as lively as they did at the Louisville show, but who could blame ‘em, poor guys are tired. Also the audience wuz lame, I mean I danced and shouted and clapped my head off, and flashed the rock sign many times. The people around me just kinda stood there, no singing, or dancing. LAME!!! The opening act, Five For Fighting, was pretty good. Not nearly as good as the Goos, but they were kool. I danced to their songs even though I wuz sittin’. Everyone was, that is until the Goos came on J…

Here is the song listing for the Goos:
Big Machine
Long Way Down
Slide
Naked
You Never Know
Truth Is A Whisper
Dizzy
Here Is Gone
January Friend
Black Balloon
Think About Me
Cuz You’re Gone (1,000 words)
Name
Tucked Away
Broadway (playing his “purple vectra”)
Sympathy
Iris
What A Scene
Encore : Burnin Up, American Girl

Johnny read a USA today article about them. It so dissed the Goos, but Johnny wuz laughing. During the encore, Johnny came out with his cigarette. (I wish he’d stop) So after the show my mom and I were wanting to stay to see if we could meet them, or at least try. But the parking garage closed 30 minutes after the show wuz over. So we QUICKLY went to our car and moved it to a far off parking lot. We went back to the buses and stood around with about 200 people. About 10 minutes after the show wuz over (10:45 or so) a guard, I mean THE guard came out and said “The Goo Goo Dolls won’t be coming out tonight. It’s my choice, the Goo Goo Dolls want to come out but I won’t let them.” So about 30-50 people left. We waited for another 30 minutes and this one girl said “If they aren’t coming out then how come the guards are still standing here?.” I thought “Good Point.” So we stayed. I mean the Goos have to get on the bus sometime.

So were right by the door but the guard said “They will only come out if everyone is single file up against the wall. So we all got in line and my mom, me and Monica (a girl that we met) went to the back of the line. I got the lead singer of Five For Fighting to sign my ticket. I didn’t really care, cuz I don’t really like em. Then Mike came out!!! Oh my Gosh! He signed my Gutterflower booklet and a card that I have from 1991 with them on it. He said “sure” he’d sign it even though George wuz on it. How sweet. Then Mike said something really cute, but he made me promise not to quote him on it! I told him he wuz the best drummer in the world and he was really shy when I said that! Next Johnny came (still trying to breath) I handed him the Gutterflower booklet and he signed it. As he was signing it, I asked him if I could give him a hug. He said “Sure” and I hugged him. The tighter I hugged, the tighter he hugged. I put my head on his shoulder! It was sooo awesome!! Then I handed him the 1991 card. He signed it and said “Thank you for having our old stuff, you must be a really true fan, thanx for having the old stuff!!” I wuz sooooo siked and I tried to not scream. I told him thank you. As he was signing my mom’s Gutterflower CD (she’s a big fan, she’s 34) I touched his Picasso tattoo. I said “ Mom, I touched his tattoo!!! Ahhh!!” Johnny started to giggle a little. Then my mom asked him if she could hug him and he said “Sure young lady.” He looked SO cute standing right there, I mean really cute. And he was so sweet!!

Then I asked this guard if Robby wuz coming. The guard said “Is he the one with the multi – colored hair?” I started to laugh and said “Yes”. He said yeah, he is coming. When Robby came down he was hugging a security guard! Then when he got to me and these 2 sweet girls next to me, he goes “Shouldn’t Big Machine be the next single?” I said “Yeah, but I really want ‘You Never Know’!” He said

“Oh you’re just saying that cuz I am standing here. If I wuz not here and Johnny wuz, you would not say that.” I said “No really, I would really love it that song was a single.” And he goes “Gosh.” And his cute little face turned red! Then I handed him the Gutterflower CD, he signed it and then the card, he put a big smiley face on his face in the picture! Then he hugged me and I loved it!!! Then I handed him a letter that I wrote to the Goos, but I wanted to give it to Robby. By the way, Robby has lost a lot of weight, he looks great! So anywho, I gave him the letter and he looked at my name on the front. He said “Raven, huh? I remember you. Are you from the internet?” I said “Yeah, I am on a lot and I e-mail you guys.” He goes “I have gotten your e-mails.” I was so freaked out, I could not breath. I said “Moma, thank you for naming me Raven! Thank you for naming me Raven!!”

Here is what the Goos wore at the show : Johnny – A black tank top with a red 8 on it, black pants and no shoes or sox. Robby – a black shirt with some kinda white writin, and leather pants (he looked GOOD) and Mike – did not catch what he wore although, he wore shorts, and he wuz cute no matter. The Goos were so sweet. The 2 girls that were standing beside me were so happy for me that Robby knew me and they offered me some water. We went to their car and got something to drink and they drove us back to our car just in case it had gotten towed or something. When we were leaving we saw Monica and so we gave her a ride home. In the car, the tour bus was behind us! I saw Johnny in the passenger side on a cell phone!!!! We frantically started waving and Johnny took the cell phone away from his ear and waved to us!!!! It was so cooleo!!

Thanks to Raven for sending this really cool encounter and lengthy review...thanks again!!

Concert Experience from Candious:
I went to see the goo goo dolls in Atlanta (Tuesday, June 11, 2002). It was awesome!!! I'll tell you about my whole day.

I woke up at 11:00 and then took a shower at 12:00. Got ready. Me and my mom left at 4:00. We went to wal-mart and bought her a shirt and me a disposable camera. Then we drove downtown. It was soo funny b/c I had a little map I'd made so we could find the place. And my mom kinda missed 2 of the streets we could have turned on. Then all of a sudden she looks left and goes, "Look! The Tabernacle!" . And there was a parking lot right across the street. We paid $10 to park. This was at about 6:00. So, we got in line. The line was already as long as the front of the building. We stood around for an hour. There was 3 radio station vans/stands right in front, too. It was Star 94, 99x, and Q100. The Star 94 stand was the best b/c they kept playing GGD songs. Anyways, they opened the doors at 7:00. My mom and I got in the place as fast as we could and went to the general admission floor. We got 3rd row (or we were the 3rd people back). We then had to stand around for an hour and wait for the opening band to come out. At 8:00 Five For Fighting played. They played for about an hour. They were pretty goodâ€¦ even though I only knew one of the songs. Then we waited for about 20 minutes for the guys to set up the stage for the GGD. Turns out Robby's microphone was right in front of us. Finally, the guys came out. The first song they played was Big Machine and I can't really remember the order after that. The show was awesome and the energy was so great. Everyone was so cool. There was a lady in front of me that had been to a ton of GGD concerts. She even had a tattoo of John on her arm. Oh, but there was a group of old people (well, old compared to me) that were drunk. One of them spilt beer on my leg. That wasn't very good. But then something bad happened. Halfway through "Broadway" I started to black out. I had to go to the lobby area and sit down. Then two security guards helped me walk outside to see the paramedic. While I was outside talking to him I could hear "Iris" playing through the walls. He let me go back in and I bought a tour shirt and a sweatshirt. We decided not to go back to the floor because we couldn't get good spots anyways. So we went to the 1st balcony and watched the last couple of songs. I got a pretty good picture of the whole stage, too. Soâ€¦ overall the concert was great. I might even get to go back (I live in Florida) and see them in September.

My advice to anyone who wants to go to a GGD concert or is thinking of going to one is: DO IT! It was soo sweet... you won't regret it!

Thanks Candious for sharing this with everyone!

Brief Review from Margarite:
I saw them in 2000 at the Canfield Fair. Its only a little over an hour from where I live. I was soo close. All I can say is that Johnny defines the word "BEAUTIFUL". I was a little disappointed that they only play a little over an hour. Maybe this tour they will play longer.

Thanks Margarite for sending me this quick review.

VH1 Storytellers Review from Suzy:
My feet think I "lapped" manhattan a coupla times in the last 36 hours(ok, ok, they think I "lapped" Manhattan a Coupla DOZEN times in the last 36 hours!)
Here is the best I can do for tonight!
Met a lot of cool "cyber-goobers"! Stood on line with Kevin, Nina and Dan(I think it was). We had a great time!
but got into different groups inside. Oh, yeah, At one point, somebody was video taping the Goo-fan line.
We sat on Robby's side, coupla rows back. Met a lot of great people I knew, somewhat from on-line. Got to sit right next to Patty and her friend Joyce! We had a great time!
Said hi to Darcy, JayV and AwakeNow, and it was so great to meet several folks I knew a lil bit from online.
There were a lot of delays in getting the audience inside-luckly they hadsome canopies up, so most people did not have to stand in the rain for very long!
The guys were dressed casual--John had his CBGB shirt on, Robby a black T-shirt with white letters and jeans, socks, Mike grey(?) t shirt and jeans.
Setlist
1)Name
2) Slide
3) Here Is Gone (twice)
4) Iris
Intro the Band: Jason Freese-keyboards, Greg Sara-guitar and Luis Conti-Percussions
5) Black Balloon
**Questions**
6)Big Machine
7)What A Scene
8)Broadway
9)Lucky Star
10)Sympathy(several attempts)
11)We Are The Normal
Questions: I think there were 8. Two that I know are from WOG!
Here are the questions as best I can remember:
1) Kevin from Buffalo--Something like--"you guys have been in thie business for quite a while now and even after all that time, you have one of the best kept secrets in the music business: Robby! When 's it gonna be that we hear ROBBY on the radio?"
John said something like--they didn't really have much choice over things like that. He agreed with Kevin about Robby, tho' It was a great question, I wish I could remember it more accurately!
2)Duffs (or is it Duffy's?) or Anchor Bar?
John said the d---- (the first one, I can't remember if there was a y in it or not), but he said definately!
3)A question about influences: John talked about "hard working people" and their work ethic from growing up in Buffalo. Mentioned the Replacements, Husker Du.
4) I think it was "the huggers" that asked about the The next single from GF being Big Machine.
I missed writing down the answer, and now I do not remember it cause of what happened next--LOL!
5)John asked Robby to pick the next "questioner". Robby pointed our way and said-I dunno, um you (or something close, suzy very excited here!) He was pointing to my daughter, ("The Girl Right Next To Me"!! LOL) She could not believe it either, she points at herself and mouths "me?"
Robby says, "yea, right there the girl with the glasses!!"
The VH1 guy handed her the microphone--she addressed the question to both John and Robby when she asked "As an aspiring songwriter myself...I would like to know, when you are writing a song which comes first: the music or the lyrics?'--Johnny answered right away that for him it is always the music that he gets first. He added thast Robby will not tell him how he(Robby) writes songs, and then asks Robby to comment from his perspective. Robby sasid his advice was to make sure you like it, just on the "off chance" that it ends up played on the radio a million times or something. . .John finished up the answer to this question with advice to keep it pure, and go with what YOU like!
Because of this excitement, please forgive my muddleheadedness about the next couple of questions;
6)When did you know you wanted to do music? John talked about trying to get girls! LOL
7)I don't remember this one at all-my notes say "set up"
I have no idea what that means!
8) How did the band evolve? I totally missed this answer, too.
Daughter still shaky from intensity of Goo attention. :-)
John talked about September 11th and how inspirational it was when they played the Concert for NYC.
During one technical problem fix Johnny led the Wave, and seemed kinda surprised the fans did it.
After several tries on Sypathy, when John completes the song, the "fan" portion of the audience gave him a standing ovation. He seemed surprised and very touched by that.
When John introduced "We Are The Normal" he talked about how he cowrote the song with Paul Westerberg, and how they worked together by mail. He finished the introduction by simply saying "This One Is For Paul."
I am probably forgetting a lot, but this is what I remember right now! It is hard to pick a coupla highlights! The entire evening was just one highlight after another! I can't wait to see what actually airs of all this?
Oh, one other thing! Johnny kept apologizing to us for the technical difficulties, delays, and redos. I hope his throat holds up, but I was delighted for the Goo majic to continue longer! And it sure didn't upset me to hear the songs more than once! LOL

Thanks again Suzy for sending me your review...I wish I coulda been there with you too!

Here's a cool story Grica sent to me.When the Goo Goo Dolls came here in August for the State Fair in Pueblo, it
was soo cool. My friend that I went with saw them in the back area where no one
else was, so we went back there and got to talk to them and take pics with them. Johnny and Robby were both crackin jokes then they both hugged us, then a
bunch of other people came over there because they saw us, but hey at least I
got to touch the MOST GORGEOUS guy in the world!

Thanks to Grica for letting me use her story!

A Goo Encounter from Brianne:
I bought the tickets 10 minutes after they went on sale. It was in Tampa. I
didn't know where the seats were until i got them...it just said "you
purchased 2 tickets to goo goo dolls in Tampa, Florida"...and when I got
them, to my surprise i scored FRONT ROW!
Then when the night came for me and my b/f to go to the concert, we were
driving there and i was looking at the ticket and the seats and still
couldn't believe we were front row. So I'm sittin in the passenger seat of
the car with my b/f in the back seat (my mom was driving us). I'm sittin
there messin with the ticket and i turned it sideways cuz it said something
and it said "backstage pass". I started freaking out so much that I asked my
b/f to get his ticket out and his ticket said backstage pass as well.
So at the concert, they were calling people with backstage passes. We went
literally running up to the guy saying "we're backstage we're backstage!"
and the guy asked to see our tickets, we showed him and he let us back
there. This lady led us to the room where we were suppose to meet them. John
and the band were sooooo nice! We told them that we were huge fans and that
our song that me and my b/f shared was "slide"...and i could kick myself for
not having a camera! I mean, I didn't know we would be backstage but hey! It
would have been a good idea!!! So the Goo Goo Dolls signed our tickets stubs and
gave us hugs.
The whole concert was awesome. When it was time to sing "slide" he was
like, "this next song goes out to a special couple in the house tonight.
Brianne and Corey are celebrating their 6 month anniversary together...this is
for you!"